In total silence, I watched as my hand returned to normal. No more sparks of lightning, just my regular old hand back.
"What the fuck just happened?" I mumbled subconsciously, not knowing how I'd done it.
I looked at the soon-disappearing body of the Void Ranger in confusion. How did it die? Did I shoot some sort of lightning out of my hand? That would be obvious with the sparks, but how?
I took a moment to recollect my thoughts about what had just happened.
'My watch!' That's right, it was the source of the voice! It almost slipped my mind.
I did hear the lightning elemental activation part of the voice. In fact, I heard everything completely, from the activation to the emergency. Could it be related to that? I wondered. Did I have lightning powers now? But it did say "elemental," so I had other elemental powers? I was so confused right now.
I looked at my watch, and the lightning symbol that was there before had disappeared. I frowned. I tried to poke it with my finger, but nothing seemed to make it work again.
What gives?! Was it a one-time thing?
I sighed. Well, whatever, my watch honestly saved me, so I can't be angry at it. More like I should praise it with utmost respect, like a follower praising their deity. Still, won't the guess that this was my cheat item be true?
I had to wipe the grin off my face. It was bad to assume that I had some godly powers. I had to remember, I am human, I could die, and everything happened because of some luck. I would not go so far as to be overconfident. If I remember correctly, it only activated because I was in danger, and I didn't know how to activate it myself. I wanted to know but had no time for it… yet.
I stood up, feeling some soreness in my back. The body of the Void Ranger finally disappeared completely, much to my relief. I didn't want it to suddenly come back to life like some villains do in movies.
"Alright, now where should I go next?" I pondered, placing my hand under my chin.
One option was to stay here and wait for them to deal with the invasion. But with the amount of noise I made here, wouldn't it attract more of them? A possibility, but a risk I couldn't take due to how limited the space here was and how little to no hiding places there were.
Again, I had yet to learn what I was going to do next. Then I remembered that there was another way to get to the evacuation zone without needing to go back to where I was first attacked. Though there were risks in this plan, especially due to the unknown dangers I might put myself into, it was better than nothing. It's either I die here or I die trying. Both seemed bad, actually.
"Yosh, time to die—I mean, time to go."
+++===+++
Do you know how a stalker would move to avoid being seen by the people they are stalking? That was what I was doing right now. Well, not exactly, but it did look like it.
I moved from corner to corner, using everything—a vase, a box, anything large enough to hide myself fully before peeking to see if the coast was clear in that specific hallway. Don't blame me for being cautious; like every sane person, I valued my life more than what other people thought of me. Think of life as jewelry, the most precious jewelry imaginable known to mankind. Now, would you do anything to keep it safe? You would, right? Because that was what I was doing right now, keeping my jewelry safe.
Steadily, cautiously, I remained undetected like the wind—silent but not deadly. Thankfully, I had yet to see any signs of any Antimatter Legion forces. The alarm, though, was still on red alert, so that meant they hadn't dealt with the invasion yet.
I took a breath and pressed on.
"Okay, at this left corner, I should be able to find the elevator. And if I'm right, that should lead closer to the evacuation center." I had to thank my goddamn memory and my willingness to learn the station's demographic map.
Like I did before, I peeked to one side and then to the other before pushing myself to turn around the corner. When I saw the elevator up ahead, I almost felt like I was close to safety, but that all broke down when I heard voices coming up behind me.
"Come on, Dan Heng, faster! Or else they're going to catch up!"
Behind, I saw two people running in my direction. That wasn't what I was most worried about. Rather, it was the Void Rangers behind them.
"Wait, why are they bringing them here?!" Here I thought I was finally safe from those bastards, but no, Lady Luck had to torture me by bringing those people and their horde to me of all people.
Just… fuck.
"Look, there's a person there!" the pink-haired girl shouted, waving in my direction.
I took the rude option and didn't wave back or even acknowledge their presence as I immediately ran toward the elevator. I saw they had weapons, so I assumed they knew how to fight. But me? The only option I had was to run.
"Hey, wait up!"
Nope, nope, nope. When I arrived at the elevator, I pressed the button rapidly. My teeth ground against one another as I impatiently waited for it to come down.
"Come on, faster, faster, faster, faster, faster!"
"Hey!"
"Ahh!" I screamed as a hand was placed on my shoulder. I instantly pushed it away but soon realized it was the pink-haired girl.
"You—" I couldn't even finish my words as my heart was rapidly beating. Holy, this cute girl just almost gave me a heart attack. That would be an embarrassing way to die; I'd rather take the blade-in-the-gut option if that were the case.
The pink-haired girl appeared to notice her mistake as she took on an apologetic expression. "Ah, I'm sorry for startling you! I didn't mean to."
"March, they're coming closer!" the guy behind her warned.
I saw the boy take a fighting stance. His weapon, I noted, was a spear. The pink-haired girl's weapon of choice was a bow.
Wouldn't a gun be a better choice for this? I thought. It seemed more practical to me.
My gaze then went up toward the Antimatter Legion forces, and I took a horrified look.
At that moment, the elevator voice sounded behind me.
"The elevator!" I cried inwardly with happiness. What perfect timing! However, when I turned my head to face the elevator, a bright light illuminated from it, making me almost instantly blind to how bright it was. I covered my eyes, but it did little to nothing as I felt my energy being drained. It was as confusing as it was horrifying. Soon, I got lightheaded, and the last thing I heard before blacking out was a shout, which I assumed to be from the pink-haired girl.
"Look out!"